This invention hazard classification placards. Specifically, this invention relates to an apparatus and method for mounting hazard classification placards on vehicles.
U.S. Federal regulations designate specific materials as hazardous for purposes of transportation (49 C.F.R. Sec. 172.101). For each hazardous material, U.S. regulations further specify requirements for identifying these hazardous materials when being transported with vehicles such as trucks, truck trailers, trains, tank cars, cargo tanks and other transport vehicles. The specified hazardous materials are currently placed in a plurality of categories based on their chemical and physical properties. These categories include: Class 1xe2x80x94Explosives; Class 2xe2x80x94Gases; Class 3xe2x80x94Flammable liquids; Class 4xe2x80x94Flammable solids, spontaneously combustible materials and materials that are dangerous when wet; Class 5xe2x80x94Oxidizers and organic peroxides; Class 6xe2x80x94Poisons and etiologic materials; Class 7xe2x80x94Radioactive materials; Class 8xe2x80x94Corrosives; Class 9xe2x80x94Miscellaneous; and ORM-Dxe2x80x94Other regulated material.
The U.S. Department of Transportation requires placarding of vehicles to notify the transportation workers, emergency workers and the public in general to the presence and type of hazardous materials contained in the vehicles. The placards are required to have specific indicia such as graphics, text, and color that classify the hazardous material being transported by the vehicle.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a placard 10 for use in identifying explosive materials found in Class 1. Here the generally rectangular or diamond shaped placard includes the indicia 12 representative of the general hazard class 1 in which explosives are listed. The placard also includes the indicia 14 representative of the English word for the name of the hazard class xe2x80x9cEXPLOSIVESxe2x80x9d and indica 16 representative of the class and subclass for the hazardous material. Here the class/subclass indica of xe2x80x9c1.4xe2x80x9d corresponds to explosives with no significant blast hazard. For other hazardous materials, U.S. regulations may specify a particular graphic to represent the class/subclass specified for hazardous materials. For example, a Flammable Gas corresponding to class/subclass 2.1 is depicted on a placard with a graphic of a flame.
U.S. regulations may also require an identification number (UN number) associated with the specific type of material to be located on the vehicle. In some configurations, as shown in FIG. 2, the previously described diamond shaped warning placard 20 may include indicia 22 representative of the UN identification number in place of the English description of the hazard class, but not in place of the graphic 24. In other configurations, the UN identification number 32 of the material may be placed on a separate elongated rectangular placard 30 as shown in FIG. 3.
FIG. 4 shows an example of a transportation vehicle 40 such as a truck, which includes the previously described hazard class warning placard 44 and UN identification placard 42. Depending on the regulations for the hazardous material being shipped, the vehicle may require placards positioned on each side, back and/or front of the vehicle.
Trucks and other transportation vehicles have the capacity to transport different types of hazardous material. Thus, the placards affixed to the vehicle must periodically be reconfigured to reflect the different material being contained in the vehicle. One inexpensive method of applying hazard classification placards includes affixing adhesive labels directly to the surface of the vehicle which have the proper size, shape and correct indicia to correspond to a placard under U.S. regulations. Another method of affixing placards to vehicles includes the use of placards in the form of rigid pages that are hinged to the side of the vehicle. Multiple pages representative of different hazard class placards may be hinged to the vehicle. When a different material is placed in the vehicle, the pages may be flipped to display the placard corresponding to the hazard class of the new material.
Unfortunately, each of these methods of affixing placards to a vehicle has disadvantages. For example, U.S. regulations require that when new placards are visible on a vehicle, that no portion of any previously placards for different classes of hazardous material be visible. With adhesive labels, this requirement results in the vehicle undergoing a labor intensive and time consuming process to remove the old labels from the sides of the vehicles. For hinged placards, individual pages may become torn or otherwise ripped from the vehicle revealing portions of other placards of the wrong class. Reparing hinged placards is often labor intensive and time consuming.
Under U.S. regulations, significant fines for violation of the regulations regarding placards may be imposed. Further, vehicles with defective placarding may be stopped and prevented from continuing with their route until the deficiency in the placarding is corrected. For hinged and adhesive labels, the difficulty in quickly correcting the placarding, may significantly delay the delivery of the material and/or the use of the vehicle. Consequently, there exists a need for a time, labor and cost efficient apparatus and method of mounting, replacing, changing, removing and repairing hazard classification placards on a vehicle.
It is an object of an exemplary form of the present invention to provide a hazard classification placard.
It is a further object of an exemplary form of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method of mounting hazard classification placards.
It is a further object of an exemplary form of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method of mounting hazard classification placards to vehicles.
Further objects of exemplary forms of the present invention will be made apparent in the following Best Modes for Carrying Out Invention and the appended claims.
The foregoing objects may be accomplished in an exemplary embodiment by a placard holder that includes a tray with a cavity that is operative to receive therein a plurality of stacked placards. The placard holder may be releasably mounted to a vehicle that transports hazardous material. When a new hazardous material is placed in a container of the vehicle, a new placard may be adhesively mounted in the tray on top of any previously mounted placards. In the exemplary embodiment, the placards may include an adhesive backing layer that enables the placards to be adhesively mounted quickly and securely to the base of the tray or the top surface of any previously existing placards. The depth of the tray for example may be sufficient to hold 10 or more stacked placards therein. In one exemplary embodiment, the cavity of the tray may have a depth of about xc2xd inch and be operative to hold a stack of about 30 placards. As a result the vehicle may be operative to transport hazardous materials which require 30 different changes to the placards before the tray is filled.
In the exemplary embodiment, the apparatus may include a bracket securely mounted to a surface of the vehicle that is in operative connection with the container that holds the hazardous material. The bracket may include parallel side portions with either slots or flanges that are operative to cooperatively engage with corresponding flanges or slots in the sides of the placard holder as the placard holder is slid into the bracket. A locking device such as a placard clip mounted to the surface of the vehicle may by moved to a position which prevents the placard holder from exiting the bracket.
When the cavity of the placard holder becomes filled with a stack of placards, the placard holder may be removed from the bracket and replaced with an empty or less filled placard holder. In addition, the filled placard holder may be recycled by applying a solution to the placard with is operative to dissolve or loosen the adhesive bond of the placards therein so that the placards may be removed from the placard holder.